Imprinting-good Or Bad

[Blazemarie]

As someone who had always been advised not to imprint a bird (as i worked with display birds),which i understood. However i have noticed that there are falconers who choose to imprint their bird. Having never worked with hunting birds what are the differences in hunting terms between an imprinted bird and non.....?

[Tim Laycock]

Too broad a question to answer with any relevance

[Venividevenatio]

Perhaps the answer is in your own thread title?
A good imprint is an absolute joy, a bad one is the proverbial pain in the a***.
If you are thinking about imprinting, carefuly asses the time you have available, and the effect that having your youngster with you in the house (for a long long while) will have on others living there. I would suggest if you are out at work, do not consider it, unless it is a job where you can have your bird with you of course!
Lokk at below link, 'gyrxpeales' sums up the requirements , for a succesful imprinting.
http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=384536&postcount=10
As I type, my youngster is sitting on my knee preening!

[JoHo]

As someone who had always been advised not to imprint a bird (as i worked with display birds),which i understood. However i have noticed that there are falconers who choose to imprint their bird. Having never worked with hunting birds what are the differences in hunting terms between an imprinted bird and non.....?

I have read this thread http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21224
and its all about Goss imprinting. And some of the stuff did make sence to me. Although I will stick with PR birds for a while at least until I have a lot more experience.


But the reason I started reading on this was for the same question as Blazemarie. I have been told by evenyone I know that Imprinting is the worst thing you can do in falconry. So like I said with the Goss mind set I can kinda understand your thinking behind imprinting. But would you imprint anything else ie. HH or RTs, or eagles. Ignoring the breeding side of things for the moment. And why would you do it.
Are the calmer less easly spooked.
Do they have better hunting ability.
Is it because they are able to fly at highter weights....just a few of my questions...dont worry I'll ask loads more. :rolleyes: :confused:

Joho

[Venividevenatio]

I have read this thread http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21224
and its all about Goss imprinting. And some of the stuff did make sence to me. Although I will stick with PR birds for a while at least until I have a lot more experience.


But the reason I started reading on this was for the same question as Blazemarie. I have been told by evenyone I know that Imprinting is the worst thing you can do in falconry. So like I said with the Goss mind set I can kinda understand your thinking behind imprinting. But would you imprint anything else ie. HH or RTs, or eagles. Ignoring the breeding side of things for the moment. And why would you do it.
Are the calmer less easly spooked.
Do they have better hunting ability.
Is it because they are able to fly at highter weights....just a few of my questions...dont worry I'll ask loads more. :rolleyes: :confused:

Joho


Read this post. ( as above) It will answer many of your questions.
http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=384536&postcount=10

[Jack]

I am going to be straight up with you on this. I have flown a great number of passage hawks. and in the past 12 years I have flown a mess of imprints. The imprints were passed to me because they were beyond redemption. The owners had created monsters that they could not deal with. This is what happens in the vast majority of cases. And the ones that do turn out well, they cannot be flown any higher than a good, well manned passage hawk. And that is a fact. I have imprinted one hawk myself. I have a really nice male goshawk that is in my view perfect. I did not use the standard methods of raising him either. He is fearful of things new and loud. He does not like strangers, and he suffers from all that a passage hawk would suffer. People think that by imprinting a hawk that they will completely elliminate fear. That is a foolish idea. They will still have their fears, but they will just be fearless of the one that imprints them. And the time that you must invest in doing this job right is absolutely necessary. You can not take short cuts, and they will demand a great deal of your time. Almost constantly for the first several months at least. Until they hard pin anyway. You can man a wild trapped hawk in far less time than that. And a PR bird will be as easy. So I have to say, why in the heck would anyone want to imprint a hawk?

Jack

[Tim Laycock]

in the past 12 years I have flown a mess of imprints. The imprints were passed to me because they were beyond redemption. The owners had created monsters that they could not deal with.

I really struggle to understand how this happens :rolleyes:

I know it does but I dont understand how normal people with a modicum of intelligence create them :confused:

[Matthew Patching]

I am going to be straight up with you on this. I have flown a great number of passage hawks. and in the past 12 years I have flown a mess of imprints. The imprints were passed to me because they were beyond redemption. The owners had created monsters that they could not deal with. This is what happens in the vast majority of cases. And the ones that do turn out well, they cannot be flown any higher than a good, well manned passage hawk. And that is a fact. I have imprinted one hawk myself. I have a really nice male goshawk that is in my view perfect. I did not use the standard methods of raising him either. He is fearful of things new and loud. He does not like strangers, and he suffers from all that a passage hawk would suffer. People think that by imprinting a hawk that they will completely elliminate fear. That is a foolish idea. They will still have their fears, but they will just be fearless of the one that imprints them. And the time that you must invest in doing this job right is absolutely necessary. You can not take short cuts, and they will demand a great deal of your time. Almost constantly for the first several months at least. Until they hard pin anyway. You can man a wild trapped hawk in far less time than that. And a PR bird will be as easy. So I have to say, why in the heck would anyone want to imprint a hawk?

Jack

You have had some bad imprints havnt you, If done well ( regardless of what way you do it) they are a joy to work alongside. When imprinting a bird you have to have a plan in your mind as to what you want to achieve. Be it potentail for AI , hunting, demonstration, film work or what ever.

I have imprinted lots of birds over the years, mostly for hunting, but occasionaly for the other aspects. Although the process deosnt change much it varies enough to make a difference on the finished article.

Well imprinted eagles are no more of a danger to there handler than merlins, this is a fact. badly imprinted birds regardless of species will always be a danger.

I am currently flying a male hh that I group reared 10 years ago, he is not agressive ( and never has or will be) I can open up quarry and find the bits he likes with the bare hand, he never screams ( infact quite bizarly he uses the parent food call as a kind of threat particularly to strange dogs) He has never screamed due to early hunting and not being left to get bored.

I Flew an imprinted male gos over 10 years ago for 5 seasons he was never footy, never aggressive to me, but this was mainly due to the fact that he was out hunting a week before he hard penned. The key with hunting birds is not holding them back.

With demo birds you need to get them into the arena as soon as they are ready to fly, again hold them back ( especialy if you include weight reduction in this scenario) and they will become face grabbing nutters with all the paraphenalia that comes with them.

Imprints can and will continue to be a joy to fly, BUT cock it up at any stage in there development and you will reap what you sow!